Words

October 1, 2018, 11:30 p.m., Comfort Inn, Des Moines

Hello, sports fans. Just took two flights from California to Iowa. Yellow cab to the motel here in Des Moines, where the band arrived a little earlier. Been a barn-burning last few days. Had some great meetings in LA, met some rock ’n’ roll avatars at Steve Vai’s charity jam for Extraordinary Families (John 5/Manson, Steven Adler/Guns, Nuno Bettencourt/Extreme, Vernon Reid/Living Colour), and got to jam with fellow Kansan Travis Lee from Red Light Saints (photo above). Thanks to our friend Ryan Romenesko for making it happen!

Caught up with our producer Matt Wallace, saw several dear friends at the Production Music Conference—was up for a film/TV track award but did not win it :-), but I lost to a friend I respect and admire, Belinda Robles—and I had a great sit-down with the executive director for House of Blues charity Music Forward.

I worked on some lyrics on the planes, read some Cormac McCarthy, and listened to some roughs of a project I have been toying with this past year called The Most Fire. I also got to hang with Mike G and Chris Robinson, two of my favorite people on the planet. Mike is a genius composer, and Chris is a TV producer who is relentlessly and laugh-out-loud funny.

I’m now in room 204, no clean clothes, nothing to eat, the compounded fatigue of 7 weeks away from home starting to grow exponentially, but thrilled from the trip. I’m in bed with my clothes on (my bag is still in the trailer, and I don’t have the energy to go get it—got  just enough bath items in my backpack to get through the next a.m.). Our tour manager, Tyler, just sent out the text laying out the next day, and soon the 5:30 a.m. bell will ring to hit my workout, drink all the coffee in the motel, and start our three-hour drive to the show tomorrow in Wapsie, Iowa. Nighty night, dummy.

October 2, 2018, 8:30 a.m.

On the way to Wapsie, Iowa, to kick off a three-show Iowa run with the fearless folks at fundingthefuturelive.org The train is firmly on the tracks.

The dead center of these multimonth tours are the dog days – You are too far from the start to have the new energy but too far away from the end to comfortably count down to the finish line. You are grateful for the work but always wish you had just a little more time. The wanderlust wears down a bit, and you miss your loved ones, your own bed, home-cooked (or just healthy) food. Your bag is full of dirty laundry, and there is never enough sleep and never enough time before the next motel or show. But it’s what you asked for, and you are quite lucky to have it. You can’t return every call, email, or social media message, but you still know you are so fortunate to get to make music for a living—and each day is a new chance to write a tune, play a little better, or have a conversation with a stranger that just might teach you something.

Noon

Soundcheck is done. No cell service here in ol’ Wapsie, but there is text. I’m driving the management crazy about how we can properly launch our new video for “Because It Hurts”- and how to get our wonderful friend, Dawn Starks some press down in Asheville, TN for a 5 show run we have coming up there. Dawn is one of those sponsors and human beings that just “gets it”. Always keeps it about the students and always looks for ways to get the word out about financial literacy and the charity we launched to support the cause.

The stage is set, and the kids are gonna start filling the aisles any minute. It’s always fun to hear the chatter and rumble as they get in the doors. I will soon be back on stage and as fully awake and fully alive as I ever feel. I love playing live as much as I did when I was 12 years old.

2:00 p.m.

The show went great. The kids were fantastic. They clapped on the two and the four, hollered, and asked great questions after we played.

Something that has never happened before—there was a wasp flying around onstage with us, and it took a minute to realize why the kids weren’t focused in and why their eyes were darting all over the place. After the first song, Erin went for a risky one-liner but, of course, nailed it…

“I guess they should call this place Waspy?”

Quick pause… The kids laughed, and we launched into the next tune.

By four p.m., we will be having lunch in Waterloo, Iowa, checking into our next Comfort Inn, unpacking, finding a washer/dryer, returning some calls, and falling into bed to do it all again.

Calexico has been blaring on my iPhone headphones, and I’m sending out our “Because It Hurts” video as fast as my thumbs can type.

Thank you for allowing us to play music for a living. We love you.

See you next Wednesday for more chicanery and tomfoolery.

—Gooding and the traveling circus

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